Lady came to me during a time when I had been on crutches / wheelchair for going on four years. My significant other being a trucker, I was home alone much of the time, in an iffy urban neighborhood and felt very vulnerable.

Lady's humans were going through a divorce, her favorite human, the husband, had moved out, the wife was working a job and had started a new business. No one was ever home and Lady was depressed, had become un-housebroken and neurotic.

When asked if I would like her, I had never met a Bouvier. I had to do some research about the breed but decided she seemed like a perfect dog for me. Lady and I needed each other and we bonded quickly. Her problems soon cleared up with TLC and training and she gave me back the freedom to go where I wanted, when I wanted and to feel safe in my home again.

She was also the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. And her gait ! That prancing, joyous trot. Trite though the term may be, the Bouvier is truly poetry in motion. And perhaps because my own movements were labored and tentative, watching her run always left me breathless.

Over the years since then, Lady was never far from my side. She helped with temporary foster dogs who passed through my home on their way to rescues, herded and held a deranged man in my hallway after he burst through my front door at 3am one summer night, played nursemaid to a litter of 8 week old kittens born to my boyfriend's trucking cat who had to bushwhack her to convince her to become their mom after their mom returned to the road, a role she first submitted to only in her sleep, but came to relish and later, other orphaned kittens.....so many stories about my amazing recycled Bouvier.

But right now, this humble tribute is my attempt to sum up all that Lady was to me. It's terribly inadequate, but it begins the healing.

Thank You,
Laurel Barrick,
Grand Rapids, MI

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For My Sweet Lady
~Sir Teddy's Lucky Lady Jane~
1993 - April 19, 2003

Beautiful, bouncing, Bouvier
Long singing strides, dance of life.
Massive head, knowing, wise eyes
Joyous tail that shook her being.

A Heart not owned, but freely given
To frail humans and hungry kittens
A Soul full of courage, a presence
That granted freedom, gave back life.

Confident, free, ever strong in spirit
Bouvier Dignity never diminished, 
Sharing her home, but never her place 
As dogs and years came to pass.

God's time, not mine, passed way too soon.
Sleep on the clouds, keep watch over heaven
Sweet Lady Jane, forever my friend,
Dance on the wind, until we meet again

All my love, your grateful, grieving human,
Laurel